DID WOODS DROP BALL AGAIN ON PENALTY?

This one didn’t rise to the furious controversy at the Masters, but there were definitely some questions about the nature of the drop Woods took on Sunday en route to an otherwise impressive Players Championship victory.

Woods followed his awful pop-up hook drive into the water on the 14th hole by walking well up the fairway to take a drop that was 255 yards from the pin. He eventually made a double bogey that dropped him into a tie for the lead at the time.

Aerial replays seemed to show the ball entering the hazard well behind where Woods took the drop, and NBC commentator Johnny Miller called the selection of the drop “really, really borderline.”

The tour got the usual barrage of calls from viewers claiming a foul, but officials reviewed the tape and said there was no “definitive evidence” for where Woods’ ball crossed the hazard. It was left to Woods and playing partner Casey Wittenberg to determine the drop spot. They agreed on where Woods should place his ball.

PGA Tour official Mark Russell also said that even if it had been determined that Woods dropped in the wrong place, “the player is not penalized by Rule 26-1 given the fact that a competitor would risk incurring a penalty every time he makes an honest judgment as to the point where his ball last crossed a water-hazard margin and that judgment subsequently proves incorrect.”

Woods has probably had more interesting rulings this season than in his previous 16 years on tour. Beyond the Masters, where some believed he should have disqualified himself for a faulty drop, the world’s No. 1 player suffered a two-stroke penalty in Abu Dhabi for incorrectly taking a drop from what he believed was an embedded lie. He was wrong, because the area was sandy and considered playable.

Woods on torrid pace

In winning his fourth tournament of the season in mid-May, Woods surpassed his previous best for quickest run to four victories. It was in his stunningly good 2000 season that Woods captured his fourth tournament, the Memorial, on May 28.

Two weeks later, he routed the U.S. Open field at Pebble Beach by 15 shots.

Woods’ form with his irons in particular — he hit 77 percent of the greens in regulation — would seem to be perfectly timed for a Merion course at the U.S. Open in five weeks that will be downright claustrophobic in spots.

Ratings boom

The Players’ final round was great drama, and it showed in the television ratings. The national overnight rating for NBC was 5.9 — the highest for a non-major PGA Tour telecast since Woods’ victory in the 2006 Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines. The previous best for a non-major this season was a 4.4 for Woods’ win at Doral.